Broke Again
Playing poker for a living can be a very unstable profession. Unexpected things happen all the time that can cut into your playing bankroll, leaving you shorter than you'd like - anything from an untimely losing streak to car repairs.

Daniel - Poker Journal

Time flies, it's WSOP time again

31 May 2007

I've been feeling very young lately. My life, the daily routine of it, has been that of a care free teenager who's only goal each day is to fill it with fun activities and nothing more. Only today did I realize that I'm going to have to act like a grown up tomorrow and for the rest of the WSOP.

Each day consists of an 11:00am wake up followed by maybe, a 3:00pm round of golf with the boys. After that, it's over to either Kona Grill or Naked Fish, both Sushi restaurants for some beers, Sake, edamame and at least for me, a vegetarian Pad Thai or a vegetarian roll.

At dinner the topic of conversation usually revolves around my pathetic golf game and the reasons why I suck so bad. I take the ribbing well, though, since these guys are my friends.

After dinner, it's over to my place. I much prefer hanging at the house rather than going to a bar or a club where there would be lots of people there that I don't really know. In the past, it's become annoying for some of my friends sometimes as they constantly feel like they have to watch my back and often people cross the line of what's acceptable behavior. People would just kind of invite themselves to our group and just hang out with us. Now, I'm talking about complete strangers here. It's just not cool.

My house is set up like a PT's anyway, only better. A pool game always breaks out immediately, I set up my I-POD on some speakers and have Bob Marley jams going on in the background. There are usually people hanging in the backyard, especially if there are smokers. In the living room the big screen has Wii Sports on all the time so people can bowl, play tennis, baseball, or maybe even the Tiger Woods golf game. There's also the poker table, and last night we played a $200 freeze out, half no limit hold'em/half limit hold'em just like the first event. We had 8 players and I busted out 5th after making a goofy call because I got bored.

I raised with Kh 3h and Boston Rob went all in from the big blind. I felt like gambling and called him... he had KK! Nice. In the end it was Rob, Marcello Delgrosso, and Ted Park playing for the title. Rob tried a sick bluff against Marcello how sniffed it out and busted him. After a back and forth heads up match between Marcello and Ted, the two wimps finally decided to make a deal. I forgot to warn them as they left that it was windy outside and that their skirts might fly up on the way to their cars.

The party doesn't ever die before 6:00am, and sometimes, especially when me and Marcello get stubborn on the pool table, we can go until 2:00pm. My wife wakes up with a puzzled look on the face like, "You are kidding me right? You guys are STILL playing!" Then she heads to the store to pick up some food for the guys.

Last night was especially fun as I had a few friends from Toronto over to the house that had never been. Many of them are in town for the WSOP and it's an amazingly talented group of players. Some of whom you may have heard of: Van Nguyen, Marcello Del Grosso, "Coin Flip" Greg Debora, and several less well known cash game grinders that are planning on playing more tournaments this WSOP.

With all the fun I've been having, I also made a little bit of time for some business. Yesterday I had a very interesting meeting about a cool project that I think could absolutely blow your mind. As usual, I can't tell you anything about it, but I think it's a really cool idea and one of the best I've heard in a long time.

Oh, and before I forget, I wanted to share with you my, "I Bet You," moment. (I Bet You is the Antonio Esfandiari and Phil Laak show that I mentioned in a previous blog).

Anyway, we were all at Naked Fish and I noticed a couple that seemed a little awkward. Something about their body language led me to believe that it was a first date, but on top of that, I genuinely believed it was a blind date.

I decided to go out on a limb and offer a $500 bet to any of my buddies. The bet was simple, "I'll bet you that those two have never met before today." Ted Park, obviously doubting my reading ability, jumped at the offer. So I politely went over to the table and asked the couple if they'd ever met before today.

They looked puzzled, wondering what would lead me to that conclusion, before the girl said, "No, he works with my mother and she set us up." Sweet! $500 in my pocket. The couple was super cool about it so I decided to pick up their tab with my newfound wealth.

***************************************************************

Now all that's over and here is my tentative WSOP plan:

I plan on playing almost daily and spending little to no time doing media related things, outside of two early mornings on the 8th and the 9th. My plan is to basically avoid the smaller buy in events and stick to the later, 5:00pm events that are better suited for my skill set. I actually printed out a rough schedule of what I'd want to do everyday so that I don't make any overlapping mistakes, for example, not playing the two tournaments prior to the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. Here is what I have:

All of this is subject to change, with the exception of the fact that if you don't see a tournament on this list, there is zero chance that I will play it. I will likely skip a few of these even to avoid burn out. In addition to playing the tournaments, I won't be playing in the cash games unless I change my mind sometime between now and the end of the WSOP. It drains too much energy out of me.

I actually played at the Bellagio once this week for 8 hours and I played pretty well. I was very unlucky in triple draw not winning any real pots in that game. When you can't make a hand in triple draw in a mixed format, it usually means you are destined to have a losing session as the game plays bigger than a game like, 7 Card Stud for example. I ended up losing $95,000 and the game broke after Chan, Tuan and myself played three handed for a while.

Other than that I haven't played poker much at all, and that was my intention anyway as the WSOP will be grueling.

On days when I start at 5:00pm, I may decide to golf that day, or, if I play a noon even and am out early I may head to the course for a late round. I'm assuming there will be some big golf matches throughout the WSOP, but I'm so bad now that it would be difficult for me to match up with anyone as they'd have to give me a TON of strokes to make a game even remotely fair. Not only strokes, but since I don't hit the ball anywhere off the tee, I have to get a tee spot also. Who knows, we shall see...

Aside from that, I won't be drinking during the WSOP. I may entertain guests one or two nights during the month, but aside from that I'll be home working out, playing pool, hanging with the wife, and mostly just relaxing in between play.

I offered, and am still offering anyone a price on me winning a WSOP bracelet this year. I had several offers the first time I posted it, so here is a reminder to those interested: you can lay me 5-1 and I'll be willing to bet up to $100,000 that I'll win a bracelet in 2007. For those who don't know how that works exactly, you'd put up $500 if you lose, and win $100 if I'm unable to win a bracelet.

Information on the Poker Forum and FullContactPoker.com is intended for poker news and poker entertainment purposes only. Full Contact Poker encourages you to play poker responsibly. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, please visit NCPG or call 1-800-522-4700 (US Toll Free) for assistance.